Pat McAfee is no stranger to taking hits on live television, but this time, the criticism is coming for his music. On Friday, August 14, McAfee officially released his debut album, titled The Diary of a Polarizing Figure. However, not everyone became a fan of the former NFL punter’s music.
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“How did nobody along the way from agents to producers to public relations stop Pat McAfee from making this laughably bad album? Lyrically this is the most hilariously cringe thing I’ve seen since me late night tweeting,” NFL insider Benjamin Allbright wrote on X.
The album is rooted in a country-rock and “Special Teams Bro Country” style. True to its diary format, there are no featured artists or special guests across the 14 tracks. The songs trace his life growing up poor in Pennsylvania, leading to his divisive sports media fame.
“For as long as I can remember my mere existence has made people hate my guts. I’ve been writing songs about it for 20yrs & it’s time to let them aht.. A LOT of headlines & narratives.. if I was to die, I’d like my kids to know exactly who their dad is,” McAfee wrote on X while announcing the album.
Fellow ESPN analyst and former NFL quarterback Dan Orlovsky raved on X that the album is “legit good good.” But not everyone, especially Allbright shared the same opinion.
“I didn’t have a preconceived slant. I didn’t even know this sh*t existed, and then I listened to it and I’m like, ‘Oh my God this is f**king terrible.’ The music is mediocre. The lyrics are horsesh*t,” Allbright wrote on another X post.
Country music star Jelly Roll connected Pat McAfee with Nashville singer-songwriter and producer Ernest, who helped McAfee record the album with professional studio musicians.
However, before Ernest stepped in to help record the tracks with real studio musicians, McAfee originally generated the early song structures by feeding his 20 years of phone-note poems into the AI music app Suno. Music critics at places like Consequence have slammed the final product, claiming McAfee’s vocals fall into a “musical uncanny valley”.
Yet, like Dan Orlovsky, Kirk Herbstreit also shared a liking for McAfee’s album.
“Hopefully people are going to be able to not just enjoy the music but really listen to the words,” Herbstreit said on the Pat McAfee Show. “You’ve got some great messaging out there. You’ve really got some strong lyrics and sent some really good messages I thought that I think we can all relate to and enjoy. It’s important to just enjoy the writing really…That’s not easy by the way.”
Not just that, the fellow ESPN analyst also invited him to perform songs from it live on ESPN’s College GameDay, which McAfee accepted the invite, confirming he will “definitely do some on GameDay.”